Vietnam's central provinces seek to develop sustainable tourism

The Hanoitimes - Vietnam’s central provinces have achieved many positive results in developing tourism, becoming one of the key areas for tourism development in the country.

The information was announced by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bui Duc Hung, Director of the Institute of Social Science of the Central Region (ISSCR) at the first international scientific workshop on sustainable tourism development in central provinces of Vietnam and ASEAN.

Quang Binh tourism.

The workshop was organized by ISSCR under the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences on June 8 – 9.
According to ISSCR Director, however, the achieved results still contains many risk factors, threatening the possibility of long-term development.
Despite being integrated into the overall socio-economic development orientation in many localities, due to lack of consensus, tourism in the region faces the risk of unsustainable development, according to Do Thu Trang, a representative from the Development Strategy Institute under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
In order to overcome weaknesses due to policy development and tourism management, she proposed that local authorities should establish a coordinating body for the whole region, building mechanisms for coordination in information exchange and work closely together to develop tourism for the whole region.
Many delegates at the workshop also proposed a closer coordination among the State, enterprises and local people and increase the monitoring of the community in tourism development in association with natural resources preservation.
Some delegates suggested that sustainable tourism should be built on the basis of what the community has, not on what the community needs, thus maximising local resources.
They also stressed the need to enhance the participation of the community in creating and protecting the cultural values of each locality for the sustainable development of tourism.
A tourism promotion program for the central provinces of Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh was organized in Udon Thani, a province in Northeast Thailand on May 23, 2018.
The program was aimed at introducing the people, traditional cultural values and tourist sites of these three provinces to Thai visitors. As many as 70 businesses, travel agencies and hotel operators from the two sides, overseas Vietnamese and Thai people joined the event.
The world’s heritages recognized by UNESCO in these three provinces include the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in Quang Binh province and Vi-Dam Folk Singing as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity in the provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh.
Representatives from travel agencies in northeast Thailand said that provinces in central Vietnam have become favorite destinations for Thai visitors and the northeast Thailand has welcomed tens of thousands visitors from Vietnam every year.
The event has helped businesses and travel agencies from two countries connect, exchange and advertise tourist products as well as seek measures to organize more tours in the future.